Dormitories - LEED NC?

Hi Omar, LEED for Homes is now available to international projects and can register on the same site as those in the U.S.: https://www.usgbc.org/leedonline.new/ Best,

Yes, that is correct you can use either.

The restrictions for LEED for Homes for international projects are important to note--first of all the number of units that is required, secondly there is a scarcity of licensed Homes certifiers globally. We wanted to certify a project in Khazakstan, the number of units was OK but we found that going through the process to become a licensed homes certifier was virtually impossible unless living in the US--training cannot be done in a few months-- and therefore we couldn't dedicate a member of our team to this mission; rather a certifier would have to be flown in from the US for the inspections, imposing an unreasonable added cost, so the LEED certification was dropped. LEED NC is far, far easier for international projects currently.

Melissa, What you are writing is very interesting. I was under the impression that there is no longer a minimum number of homes required for international LEED for Homes projects. I am thinking of starting the Green Home Rater training in order to be able to certify future international projects. You seem to be saying that is not an easy process.

Emmanuel Its possible they've already dropped the minimum, that must be quite recent, but it doesn't change the Green Home Rater situation--I might not have received the best support at the time, but I was quite keen to do the training last autumn --I am half the time in NYC. My impression is that its difficult to find a training course--I could only find one in Pittsburgh over one weekend during the entire month I was here, and furthermore it is very difficult to complete the training since it requires following a real project under the supervision of a qualified Green Homes Rater. That's just not possible for someone overseas except under exceptional circumstances. So I didn't bother to take the course since there was no way to qualify in time for the project in question and chances of a repeat project request were slim. I could be wrong; I found it most peculiar that the system could be that limiting. I'd welcome any challenging opinions.

Melissa, I understand your frustration. I still think it would be a good thing to try to become a Green Homes Rater and will look into possibilities of maybe online training in combination to some visits to the US to follow up a project. Will keep you posted if you would like that.

In a recent newsletter of USGBC I read that there are now green raters in Turkey as well: http://www.usgbc.org/articles/meet-international-green-raters-emre-and-berkay-turkey Maybe some other countries have now also some experts.